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Chapter 40 (Monday of Holy Week)

And the Lord said to Job:
‘Shall a fault-finder contend with the Almighty?
Anyone who argues with God must respond.’

Then Job answered the Lord:
‘See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but will proceed no further.’

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
‘Gird up your loins like a man;
   I will question you, and you declare to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong?
   Will you condemn me that you may be justified?
Have you an arm like God,
   and can you thunder with a voice like his?

‘Deck yourself with majesty and dignity;
   clothe yourself with glory and splendour.
Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
   and look on all who are proud, and abase them.
Look on all who are proud, and bring them low;
   tread down the wicked where they stand.
Hide them all in the dust together;
   bind their faces in the world below.
Then I will also acknowledge to you
   that your own right hand can give you victory.

‘Look at Behemoth,
   which I made just as I made you;
   it eats grass like an ox.
Its strength is in its loins,
   and its power in the muscles of its belly.
It makes its tail stiff like a cedar;
   the sinews of its thighs are knit together.
Its bones are tubes of bronze,
   its limbs like bars of iron.

‘It is the first of the great acts of God—
   only its Maker can approach it with the sword.
For the mountains yield food for it
   where all the wild animals play.
Under the lotus plants it lies,
   in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.
The lotus trees cover it for shade;
   the willows of the wadi surround it.
Even if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened;
   it is confident though Jordan rushes against its mouth.
Can one take it with hooks
   or pierce its nose with a snare?

Commentary

There are many instances from everyday life where the cause itself is unknown, but the effect decidedly not so. And there is need for faith truly in the religious, supernatural sense wherever there is the ignorance due to my nature itself. For when I raise to your heaven those weak eyes that are my light I believe myself to see nothing other than your heaven. When surveying those circles and spheres carrying the stars, the yearly returns and vigils, the north star, the morning star, all these being given their differing tasks to perform, I perceive you to be at work in matters of which my perception is even so very incomplete. When I see the wonderful rise and fall of the sea, it is not the origin of the waters alone nor yet the motion of this vast swirling mass that I pursue and ponder, but rather, on apprehending the ground for belief in the cause which I cannot even so observe, that I am mindful, in things my mind does not grasp, of you also.

When I turn my mind’s eye to the earth, what is sown by hidden forces breaks free of what it had received, springs to life, multiplies and flourishes. There is really nothing here that I could understand properly by the light of nature; but then my ignorance itself contributes to my dim understanding of you, as long as I understand clearly that, being unfamiliar and baffled by the nature that serves me, I understand, as I say, that you alone can properly be of advantage or benefit to me. Not knowing or understanding myself either, I feel that all the more for that I am in awe of the fact that I am even a mystery to myself. For aware of, yet not comprehending, the movement of my mind in the act of passing judgement, or its way of functioning, or its life, I am in your debt for the awareness, for your communicating that awareness of nature delighting me, beyond the perception of natural origins. And when I come to understand you, albeit in ignorance of myself, may I respect you with my understanding and not lose hold of my faith in your omnipotence at the thought of my ignorance of your ways: that my mind may be taken up with the origin of your only-begotten and so have something left over of itself, that I may further strive after my Creator and my God. (St. Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate)

Musical Selection (John L. Bell)

Be Still And Know That I Am God, Be Still And Know That I Am God
Be Still For I Am God

Collect

All-powerful God,
as often as we grow faint through human weakness,
grant us new life and breath
through the passion and death of your beloved Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.

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